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Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories This review is for the Gameboy Advance version of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. I've heard the PS2 version is better, but I'm reviewing the original. KH: CoM is one of those unfortunate games where the story is really good and I have a strong desire to continue through to the end. However, the gameplay is terrible. This really ranks among some of the worst games ever in terms of gameplay. It isn't that the mechanics are terrible, it's more that there are certain elements to the game that make it absolutely frustrating. Let's start with the good, which is the story. As the game starts, I was worried because I thought it'd be just a duplicate of Kingdom Hearts, only worse. It begins with Sora, Donald, and Goofy finding their way to "Castle Oblivion," where they quickly discover that their memories are all muddled. They remember some things, but other things are complete blanks in their minds. Not only that, but all of the worlds you saved before are having similar issues. And this is what worried me. It starts out and I visit Agrabah to help out Aladdin...again. And Alice. And Winnie the stupid Pooh. So I was afraid that the whole memory thing was going to be just one giant plot hole to allow us to save everybody again and do the same darn thing.
Soon enough though, I discovered this was not the plot. I was pleased to discover that this game actually does have its own plot and, likely because of graphics limitations, there is actually very little focus on helping the Disney characters. Basically, each new world you visit has four scenes, each taking place at certain points. The first one takes place right when you enter a new world. Maybe it's Ariel swimming around or Aladdin fighting heartless or whatever else. Afterward, you get this Key of Beginnings.
The Key of Beginnings unlocks a special door on the map where your second scene will take place. Then, you get a Key of Guidance to view the third scene, and a Key to Truth to view the final scene of the world. The scenes are generally short and just like in Kingdom Hearts 1, some are focused on the Disney plot while others focus more on the Kingdom Hearts plot. It was somewhat nice to see some of the worlds reversed, so if they had a strong Disney plot before, they were now focused more on Kingdom Hearts plot and vice-versa. So now we actually get to see Belle and there's a bigger Pinocchio plot besides defeating a boss and leaving that silly whale's insides.
The Disney plots aren't very interesting, but that's never been the reason I've played Kingdom Hearts. And as I said, this game actually has a great story. Problem is, that story has almost nothing to do with visits to the Disney worlds. They really seem tacked on just to break up the important bits of the story, which are the events that take place within Castle Oblivion. Inside this area, your characters begin to discover the root of their memory loss and delve into the sinister Organization XIII. The plot behind Castle Oblivion and Organization XIII is excellent. I won't spoil the plot, but it's very interesting and involves searching for past memories and the idea of a "nobody." But I'll say no more about the plot except that it is really interesting. Now the bad parts of the game. First, before leaving the idea of story, I must say that I got very tired of the characters constantly saying/thinking "..." Every couple lines of dialogue, one of the characters on the screen will interrupt the conversation to pause and think of it. And it isn't just something you can click through. It's an animated scene where they think "." then ". ." then ". . ." It is very annoying. Nobody should be thinking that much. I'm okay with using that occasionally, but it is used all the time.
After watching every single character think "..." for a while, it's off to the next Disney world. Now we'll get into that terrible game play. First, the worlds are boring. It's a group of rooms where enemies spawn and if you touch them, you go into a random encounter, similar to the typical RPG. When you get to each new room, there are certain exits. If you're not pushing Select to see the map, you're probably geting lost. But basically, you go through the stage either dodging or fighting enemies (I dodge more often than fight because that's how I roll) until you get to the Room of Beginnings, Room of Guidance, or Room of Truth, where you'll probably fight a boss. And that's the Disney worlds. But wait, there's more!
This is where the game can get extremely frustrating. To go between rooms, you need to have a card that meets certain criteria. It may have a number amount that needs to be exceeded, maybe a specific color, or maybe you need to use several cards to add to a certain amount. So in order to progress the game, you need to obtain certain cards. Getting these cards? Random. I could maybe understand that you need to get a certain card if one of the enemies in the room is holding said card. It would encourage fighting random encounters and make progress possible. But no. Sometimes you walk into a room and see some ridiculous criteria like 9+. The card values are from 0 to 9, so first of all, the whole "9 or above" criteria is dumb because there is nothing above 9. But, basically, there are 30 possible cards to get. There are 3 colors: red, blue, and green, and there are ten values: 0-9. One door that had me stuck for about four hours required a 7+ Green card. Out of thirty possible cards, there are three that would open that door. That's a 10% chance of obtaining the right card.
So when you get hit by these situations, you have to run around fighting enemies. Two problems. One is that fights can take quite a while sometimes. The battle system, which I'll get into soon, isn't great for speed and can cause high frustration. The other problem is that sometimes you will enter a new Disney world and use some very high-valued cards to get through doors, only to find that you need just one more to finish off the area, but the enemies eventually stop spawning, so you're not even guaranteed to complete the world. So you go to an old world to card-grind, then return with that amazing card you needed. But if you change worlds, guess what? All those doors are locked again! And some of the doors have changed values, so now that Blue 5 you've been searching for forever isn't even required! And that's when you realize that having a frustrating video game on a handheld system means your GBA is going to be smashed against the nearest wall.
There is some strategy to the door cards. You need to keep diverse cards so that when you're hit with that rare situation, you have all types of cards and can get through any door. Problem is, you don't have any advanced knowledge of what the next door will be.. It'll be a door that say, requires a 7+, so I'll have a Green 7 and a Red 8. Thinking my Red 8 is more useful than a Green 7, I use my Green 7 on the door. And what's the next room? Green 6+. And here I am with a really high red card (i.e. useless) and a slew of low green cards.
I'm always anti-level-grinding, but this game reinvented my anger toward grinding by requiring it. There are things you can do by using certain cards to create custom rooms that will help dictate the type of card that enemies will drop, but it still takes forever to find specific cards. So you just fight and fight and fight and fight--
Enough about cards, let's talk about cards. No, not door cards, now we're talking battle cards! The whole game is about cards. World cards, door-lock cards, battle cards, even soldier cards (lol Wonderland). In battle, cards can be very annoying. Again, you obtain them randomly, so the strength of your deck is random. But what really urks me about this game's battle system is that it's both a button-masher and a precise card game. You build a deck that contains fighting cards, magic cards, summon cards, and item cards. The order of your deck is very important because you will need to use specific cards at very specific times. Basically, you have cards of values 0-9 (sounds familiar...) and each one has a specific action, such as attacking with your keyblade or curing yourself. What happens is if you play a Level 5 cure spell, it will cure for the same amount as a Level 1 cure spell, but it is much easier for an enemy to trump it. Only one action can happen at once, so if you are using that Level 5 cure spell and an enemy plays a Level 9 attack card, then your cure spell will be interrupted and the enemy will hit you. Not only does this mean you don't get cured, but your cure spell is gone until you reshuffle your deck. There is a lot to rant and rave about against the battle system, but it boils down to one main issue: it isn't Kingdom Hearts. One of my favorite parts of the Kingdom Hearts gameplay is being able to run around and smack things with a giant key. But now, you have to calculate every card you throw out and you can't just wail on things. Eventually you can make a deck of a ton of Level 8/9 attack cards and beat the crap out of enemies, but the enemies will still find ways to trump your attacks, like with Level 0 cards, which trump anything, but are also trumped by anything. It makes sense, but this battle system is so fast-paced that you just can't scroll through your cards to find the right ones. It is very difficult to find the correct cards at the right time. Card games are typically fun when they're calculated, not when they're rushed. You never see poker professionals that are picking up their hands, immediately ripping two of them out and throwing them out, slamming them down on the table declaring "Two pair now let's do the next hand!" It's a neat card battle that KH:CoM uses, but the pacing does not allow you to fully calculate your moves, so really your only option is to make a deck of high-valued cards and mash the attack button. Last rant against battles. My least favorite part of the battles are that some enemies are practically impossible because they are at least physically invincible in the front. These enemies existed in the original game, but the original game was 3D, so it didn't matter as much. In this game, which has basically 2D battles, they're almost impossible. From the front, you can't hurt them, and since it isn't 3D, their animation for turning around is nil. They can turn around at a moment's notice with no pause, so often you'll decide "hey, I'll just roll behind him and hit him from behind!" and when you do, he's already turned around and is again invincible. And then when you wait for him to attack so that he is somewhat forced to face a certain direction for a short time, you roll behind him and try to attack him, but no! His attack card was a 9 and the next five cards in your deck are 6-8, so he's still invincible until his attack card disappears. If two "invincible from the front" enemies attack you, they will often face one front, one behind, and be completely invincible. Sure, you can use magic, but oh my goodness this is frustrating.
If we're talking about purely story or plot, I really think this might be my favorite Kingdom Hearts. It has a neat plot and Organization XIII is awesome. But unfortunately, the game isn't fun. Interesting, but not fun. It loses the "fight with your friends" dynamic, which was part of what made Kingdom Hearts great, even if Donald sucked at choosing his spells, and everything is replaced with a card system that just isn't that good. Even "fighting with your friends" results in each of your friends being a random card. But I love that after you finish Sora's quest, you get to play as Riku, who has a different play-style and an interesting, parallel story to Sora's story, which further makes me love the plot. However, the gameplay is so bad in both stories that I'll likely never play this game again. Call me old fashioned, but I need my games to be fun, not aggravating.
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